Introduction: Wooden Checkers Board
Step 1: Materials Needed
Materials for the Board
- (2) 12 inch x 24 inch Finished Wood (We used Aspen)
- Painters Tape
- Electrical Tape
- Pourable Epoxy
- Resin Colorants Materials Misc.
- Sand Paper
- Wood Glue
- Clear Coat
- Paint Brushes
- Craft Sticks
- Disposable measuring cups
- Wax Paper Tools
- Table Saw
- Router
- Surface Sander
- Clamps
- Heat source(heat gun)
Step 2: Designing the Board
How to Create a Vector Logo with Adobe Illustrator?
1. First You must open Adobe Illustrator CS6 in the applications Window
.2. Most Images coming from the Internet are Raster images. A Raster Image is created by a series of dots. The CNC engraver will need a Vector image to create your engraving. A vector Image is a series of lines that have been used to create your image. Adobe Illustrator has the ability to convert a Raster Image into a Vector image for your engraving. a. Select your Image with the cursor. b. Select the Image Trace Button.
3.The X-Carve machine uses a software program called Easel to run the engraving. All files
must be either .SVG or G-code files. When saving your file, there will be a pull down menu in the lower portion of the Save menu, select file type .SVG.
4.Repeat the step for the Janesville Craig Cougar.
How to Use Easel Carving?
1. You must go on the Inventables Easel Website and create an account.
https://www.inventables.com/technologies/easel
2. Launch the App once you are logged into your account.
3. Now you are ready to start your project. Prior to opening Easel, you were to create your
SVG image with Adobe Illustrator. Please select Import SVG in the File Pull-down menu.
4. We are ready to begin the design of the final board. The part will need to be designed
into two pieces and glued together for the final board. We start by creating the entire design on one file: a. Lines first b. JC logo
5. Once we have the initial design completed, we will need to make two copies(do not
modify the original design)
Step 3: Step 3: Engraving Your Board- First Cuts
1. Cutting the board takes a longer period of due to the detail of the logo inside the
checkers board. First, we will start with the lines. Set the origin of the part at the lower left corner. We will start with a 1/16th bit to cut the horizontal and vertical lines.
2. We will reset the bit origin at the lower left corner again and change the tool to the
1/32th. The logo cuts will finish off the initial cuts prior to pouring the first round of colored epoxy.
Step 4: Step 4: Gluing Two Halves Together.
1. Since we engraved the boards in halves, we will need to glue the two together to make
the finished piece.
2. We cut our halves down to finished sizes using the table saw.
3. While clamping pieces together, please make sure that you used proper wood glue and wax paper under your work pieces to prevent the two pieces from sticking to your table.
4. Clamping location is important to ensure that lines are straight and that your Epoxy does not leak out due to cracks in the parting line.
Step 5: Step 5: Mixing and Pouring Epoxy – First Pour
1. We will be using a bar top epoxy purchases at Menards, but any two part resin will also
work. The colored epoxy will need to be poured separately, taping will be required for sections that you do not want the epoxy to leak into.
2. Equal parts of the Side A and Side B will need to be poured into your measuring cup.
3. Once resin is mixed we added both a base colorant that was made for resin along with a
pearlescent colorant. Take caution when adding the colorant, a little bit goes a long way.
4. Please take caution when pouring the logos as to not get any of the epoxy into the
checkers board lines.
5. Let the epoxy sit for full cure time(ours was 24 hours) before working with the board again.
Step 6: Step 6: Engraving Into Your Board- Second Cuts
1. Cutting this portion of the board takes less time due to it just being letters and four
logos. First, we will lettering using a ¼” engraving tool. Set the origin of the part at the lower left corner.
Step 7: Step 7: Mixing and Pouring Epoxy – Second Pour
1. We will again be using a bar top epoxy purchases at Menards, but any two part resin will
also work. The pouring the lettering will take less time due to the limited detail in the design.
Step 8: Step 8: Sanding and Finish
1. The surface finish of the poured checkers board will have raised epoxy in the areas that
you have poured too much. Depending on the amount of over pour, you can either use a palm sander if you do not have much to take off. We used a surface sander to take our excess materials off .
2. Please take caution when using the surface sander to not take too deep of a pass, this may remove more of the epoxy then desired.
3. Our final step of the project was to seal the board to prevent moisture from getting to
the final product. We chose Minwax Helmsman Urethane to seal our project having worked with in the past with success. The number of coats that you apply is your choice, we finished off our checkers board with three coats.